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DAY 1: PERTH TO YANCHEP AND LANCELIN
Meet your travel mates in Perth, pick up the minibus and take the first steps of the road trip north. This is a shared rental, so the route below is the recommended plan and your group can change it. Just north of the city, Yanchep National Park has kangaroos on the lawns and koalas in the trees, though koalas aren't native to Western Australia and were brought here in the 1930s. Then carry on to Lancelin, a fishing town backed by huge white dunes, where you can sandboard, kayak or swim.
DAY 2: THE PINNACLES AND JURIEN BAY
Start with the Pinnacles at Cervantes, thousands of limestone pillars standing in yellow sand in Nambung National Park, some taller than a person. Then spend the day on the beaches. At Jurien Bay you can snorkel and swim with Australian sea lions, an endangered species found only in Australia, which are curious and playful in the water. Further north, Greenhead has quiet beaches, coastal walks and a barbecue area at Dynamite Bay.
DAY 3: ELLENDALE POOL AND GERALDTON
Stop at Ellendale Pool, a deep waterhole on the Greenough River beneath a tall sandstone cliff, for a swim and a walk. You could even camp here. Otherwise head on to Geraldton to stock up on food and supplies and see the town. On the hill above it, the HMAS Sydney II memorial has a dome of 645 steel gulls, one for each sailor lost when the ship went down in 1941. There are animal parks around town and an old homestead said to be haunted.
DAY 4: HUTT LAGOON AND KALBARRI
On the way to Kalbarri, stop at Hutt Lagoon, a lake that glows pink because of a salt-loving alga packed with beta-carotene, the same pigment that colours carrots. Once you've finished taking photos, carry on to Kalbarri, a town at the mouth of the Murchison River, famous for its gorge, its sea cliffs rising around 100 metres above the ocean, and its walks.
DAY 5: KALBARRI NATIONAL PARK
Spend a second day in Kalbarri National Park, where the Murchison River has cut an 80 km gorge through layered red and white sandstone. Everyone stops at Nature's Window, a natural arch that frames the river bend, and at the Kalbarri Skywalk, two platforms jutting out over the gorge about 100 metres above the river. But the best of the park is on foot, so pick a couple of the walks and hike down into the gorge itself.
DAYS 6-7: MONKEY MIA AND SHARK BAY
Head into the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, listed in 1991. On the way, stop at Shell Beach, made of countless tiny cockle shells piled metres deep; the water here is so salty that the little cockle thrives with few rivals. At Eagle Bluff a clifftop boardwalk looks down on sharks, rays and turtles in the shallows, and Denham is the most westerly town in Australia. Then stay overnight at Monkey Mia, where wild bottlenose dolphins have been swimming up to the beach since the 1960s. Spend the next day relaxing on the sand and watching for them.
Overnight: Monkey Mia
DAY 8: SHARK BAY AND HAMELIN POOL
See what you've missed of Shark Bay, perhaps with a picnic at Little Lagoon, a round, sheltered lagoon just outside Denham joined to the sea by a narrow creek. Then stop at Hamelin Pool, where the water is about twice as salty as the open sea and stromatolites grow along the shore. These rocky mounds are built by microbes, living examples of one of the earliest forms of life on earth. Then make a start on the drive north towards Carnarvon.
DAY 9: CARNARVON AND THE QUOBBA BLOWHOLES
Spend a day in Carnarvon, a fruit-growing town on the Gascoyne River, a river that flows underground for most of the year. Stock up on supplies, visit the local farms for fresh mangoes and walk the boardwalk. Then head north out of town to the Quobba Blowholes, where swells force the sea up through holes in the limestone ledge, sometimes as high as 20 metres. There's a good snorkelling spot close by.
DAYS 10-11: CORAL BAY
Coral Bay is a special place: a tiny town on a beautiful beach where you can snorkel the Ningaloo Reef straight off the sand. Ningaloo is one of the longest fringing reefs in the world, running about 260 km down this coast, and it was World Heritage-listed in 2011. Coral starts only a few metres from shore, and the snorkelling gear comes in the trailer. Stay a couple of nights and make the most of it.
Overnight: Coral Bay
DAYS 12-13: CAPE RANGE NATIONAL PARK
Cape Range National Park is often a favourite stop of the whole trip, so camp inside the park if you can get a spot. Snorkel the Oyster Stacks, rocky pillars crusted with oysters and ringed by fish, best at high tide, or drift with the current along Turquoise Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. For a hike, walk the gorge at Yardie Creek, home to black-footed rock-wallabies, or the rim of Charles Knife Canyon, with views over the range.
Overnight: Cape Range National Park (camping, if you can get a spot)
DAY 14: CAPE RANGE AND EXMOUTH
Spend the morning in Cape Range, or, for an extra cost, join a tour to swim with whale sharks, the biggest fish in the sea. Then head into Exmouth, a town founded in 1967 to support the American naval communications station on the cape. Stock up on food and look around, then drive a couple of hours towards Karijini before setting up camp for the night.
DAYS 15-17: KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK
It's a long drive to Karijini National Park, but it may be the most beautiful place on the whole trip. Set up camp for a few nights, because there's a lot to see: waterfalls, pools, hikes and deep gorges cut through rock about 2.5 billion years old. Climb Punurrunha (Mount Bruce), at 1,234 metres the second-highest peak in Western Australia. Walk into Dales Gorge to Fortescue Falls, which runs all year. Stop at the visitor centre for maps, and the guidebook has more ideas.
Overnight: Karijini National Park (camping)
DAY 18: KARIJINI TO PORT HEDLAND
Spend the morning in Karijini before heading north to Port Hedland. It isn't a typical tourist town, but it is one of the biggest bulk export ports in the world, where iron ore trains more than two kilometres long roll in from the Pilbara mines. It's also a chance to swim at a beach for the first time in days. Take in a few lookouts and restock the groceries.
DAY 19: MARBLE BAR
Head inland to Marble Bar, famous as the hottest town in Australia: in 1923 and 1924 it stayed above 37.8°C for 160 days in a row. Don't worry too much unless you're here in summer. The town is named after a bar of red jasper across the Coongan River that early prospectors mistook for marble. The drive shows you real red Australia, and there are gorges and waterholes around, some with camping.
DAY 20: 80 MILE BEACH
Spend the morning around Marble Bar, perhaps at the gorges or trying your luck prospecting for gold. In the early afternoon, head to 80 Mile Beach, which is actually about 220 km long. It's famous for shell collecting, fishing and the huge flocks of migratory shorebirds that feed on its flats. Swimming isn't safe because of crocodiles and sharks, so enjoy it from the sand.
DAY 21: BROOME
Drive into Broome with your new friends. Perhaps take a camel ride at sunset along Cable Beach, 22 km of white sand named after the telegraph cable laid from here to Java in 1889. Or visit Gantheaume Point, where red cliffs meet turquoise water and dinosaur footprints show in the rock at very low tides. A cold beer to celebrate the end of the journey will be well earned.
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